The rules, step by step
- One player is the guesser. Everyone else sees the secret word.
- Each clue giver writes exactly one word — no part of the secret word itself.
- Identical clues cancel each other out. The obvious clue is usually the wasted one.
- The guesser sees what survived and gets one guess.
- Right keeps the card. Wrong costs you this card and the next one. Pass costs just this one.
- It is you against the deck: thirteen cards, one score for the whole table.
Scoring and the fiddly bits
Deck size
Seven, thirteen or twenty cards. The score is out of that number and the rating band scales to match.
How duplicates are matched
Case, accents and punctuation are ignored and a trailing plural or tense is stripped when four letters survive. Everything in a colliding group is binned.
The word itself is refused
You cannot submit the secret word as your clue. The box’s finer clue rules stay the table’s to police.
Right, wrong, pass
Right keeps the card and a point. Wrong costs the card and the next one off the deck; a pass costs just the card in play.
The rating
Out of thirteen: 13 is Perfect, 12 Incredible, 11 Amazing, 9 Great, 7 Good, 4 Average. Shorter or longer decks are scaled against the same table.
Questions about Only One
Is Only One free?
Yes. Every game on Table Party is free, with no accounts, no adverts and nothing to buy.
How many people do you need for Only One?
Between 3 and 7. Below 3 there are not enough of you for the game to work.
Do we need to download anything?
No. One person opens the site and starts a room; everybody else joins by typing the room code on their own phone. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.
Can we play Only One over a video call?
Yes. Share the room code in the chat and play with the call running — everything private stays on each player’s own phone.
Play Only One online
Free, in the browser, with everyone on their own phone.